


Overwatch

by katikat



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Episode Related, Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 18:31:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13300755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/pseuds/katikat
Summary: Jack signs up for another tour to keep Mac safe. That’s the easy part. The call home? Much harder to make. Jack’s POV. Missing scene from episode 212. (Unbeta'd)





	Overwatch

**Author's Note:**

> We only know that Jack has a sister. Her name hasn't been revealed yet - at the time I wrote this - so I named her Annie. Annie Dalton. Seemed fitting.

“Hey, big brother! So, when are you getting home? And do you need me to pick you up?”

 _Annie._ Sighing, Jack leans back against the wall in the hallway outside the main office at Base Collins and closes his eyes, phone pressed tightly against his ear.  _This will be tough…_

“I’m not. Going home, that is,” he says carefully.

There’s a long pause. Then, “But that’s all you’ve been talking about for  _weeks_ now, that you would be finally getting out of there!”

Yeah, well. Things change. Pigheaded nerds with no sense of self-preservation change things.

“I signed up for another tour,” Jack admits, cringing a little on the inside.

“ _What_?” Annie yells, her shrill voice piercing his eardrum. “ _Why_? Did the army make you do this? Did they force you–”

“ _No_! No, nothing like that,” Jack cuts her off. “It was my own decision, nobody forced me to do anything!”

Another pause. “Were you drunk?” she asks suspiciously.

Well, that’s just rude. “ _No_! Jesus Christ, I wasn’t drunk, Annie! I never get drunk on the job, you know me! I just…  _reconsidered_.”

Yet another pause and more suspicion in her voice when she says, “ _Why_?”

Jack sighs and thumps his head against the wall lightly. “There’s this kid–”

“A _kid_?” Annie yells again, so shrilly this time that Jack almost drops the receiver. “You have a  _kid_? You–”

“For cryin’ out loud, woman! Let me  _finish_!” Jack roars so loudly that everyone in the hallway turns to glare at him. He grimaces, raising a hand in a silent apology, but at least it gets his sister to shut up.

“No, I don’t have a kid! What do you take me for? I don’t run around, dropping little Daltons all over the world!” he snaps. Then his tone softens. “It’s not like that…”

Annie must hear something in his voice because when she speaks again, her tone’s softer, too. “Then what is it like, big brother?”

Sighing again, Jack turns his eyes up, to the ceiling. “There’s this EOD tech…” He pauses, not really knowing how to continue, how to explain it.

“Yes?” Annie prompts gently after a moment.

“He’s just a kid, barely twenty, pale and skinny and with the nerdiest name ever -  _Angus_! Who even names their kid  _Angus_?” he grumbles but his lips are twitching just thinking about it. “But he’s so smart, Annie.  _So smart_! Hands down the smartest person I’ve ever met. The way his mind works…” He shakes his head fondly. “And he’s so brave, he has more integrity in his little finger than half the guys I’ve fought with over the years…”

Jack pauses again and this time, Annie waits him out. “But he has the self-preservation of a lemming,” he finally continues. “He’s so focused on doing his thing, disarming bombs and saving people, that the importance of his  _own_ life doesn’t even register in that big brain of his. He needs someone to watch his back, to keep him safe - well, as safe as possible under the circumstances.”

“But why does it have to be  _you_?” Annie asks and her voice’s frustrated but not unkind. She knows her brother.

Yeah, why does it have to be him? He thought about that, a  _lot_ , while packing his things, on the way to the airfield, while boarding his plane… And the answer was surprisingly easy in the end.

“Because I don’t trust anyone else to do it,” he admits. “The kid’s  _special_ , Annie, and he needs someone who gets that, who gets  _him_. Not that mumbo-jumbo he keeps spouting, but who understands what drives him, what he  _needs_.”

“And that’s you.” It’s not a question, it’s a statement.

“Yes, that’s me.” Jack’s sure of that. He can be what MacGyver needs.

There’s a long moment of silence on the phone, then Annie says, “Well, then I hope he’s worth it, Jack, and that you won’t end up regretting your decision.”

“He is, sis. He  _is_ worth it,” Jack answers and there’s no doubt at all about that in his mind. “And I would never, ever forgive myself if I went home only to find out that he got dead over here.  _Never_.”

She sighs. “Alright, big brother,  _alright_. I’ll tell the others and I’ll try to make them understand. Just… “ She sighs again and her voice turns even quieter when she says, “Be careful? I don’t want  _you_ to  _get dead_  because of that kid, no matter how much you like him, okay?”

Jack smiles, touched by her concern. “Okay. You know I’m always careful.”

She snorts and he feels insulted again. That’s how she rolls, his Annie. But then she adds, “I love you,” knowing very well how to turn her big bro all…  _mushy_. It must be a little sister thing, or something.

He tells her he loves her, too, and promises to call soon. And then he hangs up, picks up his gear and his rifle and heads out. The slowest bomb tech is waiting for his overwatch. And Jack Dalton it is.


End file.
